Poms, Pinot and Wine Vault TV
Wednesday 3 March
I met Jayson Bryant of Wine Vault TV through twitter last year. He’s New Zealand’s answer to Gary Vaynerchuk although he hails from Hampshire in England. Bryant set up his store, The Wine Vault, in 2005 and while he’s been in New Zealand since 1998, he hasn’t lost his southern accent.
Wine Vault TV started at the end of 2008 and Bryant admits he cringes when he looks back on the first 40 or so episodes. But as he nears the 200th episode, he’s very comfortable in front of the camera, as I found out when he invited on to his show.
A few days before coming on the show, he asked “What do you want to taste?”
“Syrah”, I answered.
So off I went thinking he was going to pull out a bottle or two of Syrah but he hadn’t taken a blind bit of notice of me! He pulled out two Pinot Noirs. Bloody Southerners.
I’ve not yet been overly impressed with Marlborough Pinot Noir, they lack a bit of structure in my opinion while Martinborough and Central Otago are much more together. So, just to prove me wrong out comes 1996 La Strada Marlborough Pinot Noir from Fromm. It was still alive – just with really earthy, vegetal flavours. I’ve not had the chance to taste a wine with so much age from New Zealand so it was pretty interesting.
I’m not going to reveal any more or it’ll spoil it. We had great fun on the show and it’ll be on the web next week and I’ll embed it on my site too for you to watch. I’m hoping I didn’t swear too much or my mum won’t be pleased.
Gimblett’s neighbour steps up its game
Sunday 7 February
Hawke’s Bay producers based close to the Gimblett Gravels in ‘The Triangle’ are planning to group together to gain international recognition for their terroir.
While still embryonic, producers including Bridge Pa and Alpha Domus aim to form a ‘Triangle’ association to compete with their well-known neighbours Gimblett Gravels.
Paul Ham, Managing Director at Alpha Domus, said, “We are constantly bombarded with Gimblett Gravels. I’m not complaining about it but it’s up to us to be proactive. Across the road from the Gravels we have this triangle sub-region which offers something else.”
“People have heard all about Gimblett Gravels and they are looking for what’s next from Hawke’s Bay, so we have a great opportunity to get some traction,” he added.
The Triangle – also known as the Ngatarawa or Bridge Pa triangle – first needs to settle on one name for the area and define its boundaries. It lies around one kilometre from the Gimblett Gravels, on the same former river bed but with a clay and sandy top soil. The wines are similar in style to the Gravels but Stephen Daysh, director of Bridge Pa, claims, “The Triangle fruit isn’t as dense or heavy as Gimblett Gravels but is a little more lifted and perfumed.”
This is not the first time people have talked about defining the area but it has not yet come to fruition. It is likely to come against some opposition from other Hawke’s Bay producers and the regional association, which aims to promote the region as a whole. Let’s face it, most consumers don’t even where New Zealand is, let alone Hawke’s Bay! However, in the fine wine market the Gravels have already started to gain recognition and the producers shouldn’t just sit and watch while they run away with all the headlines.
Other vineyard owners in the Triangle include Ta Mata, Sileni, Matua and Church Road.
Sweet and sour Syrah
Sunday 31 January
One drop of rotundone is enough to make an Olympic size swimming pool smell peppery. One gram of this potent stuff could make the entire Australian Shiraz harvest smell peppery too. This compound was identified last year and was one of the more technical topics tackled at Hawke’s Bay’s Syrah symposium.
While there were a few tedious talks due to the bumbling nature of several speakers, it was an interesting day.
Tastings from around the world proved a point that New Zealand Syrah is pretty distinctive and can be picked from a line up of the rest of the world’s other Syrah producers. The Northern Rhone has its own unmistakeable style while South Africa can generally be picked for its burnt rubber/Stilton/gamey/call it what you will savoury notes. But New Zealand has its own New World version of the Rhone. It’s an elegant riper style with black pepper and ripe brambles, dusty firm tannins and a lovely freshness.
British speaker Tim Atkin MW published an article back in 2007 claiming ‘Syrah could save the day in Hawkes Bay’. He encouraged more planting of the variety three years ago but the call clearly fell on deaf ears as a mere 10 hectares have been planted across New Zealand since then! He stood up yesterday and told them the same story – to take Syrah more seriously.
If Sauvignon Blanc, which makes up more than 80% of New Zealand wine exports falls out of fashion in the same way that Australian Chardonnay did, New Zealand needs a plan B. Yes, it has other varieties planted but they’re a bit of a sideshow at the moment. New Zealand really has an opportunity to take the world by storm with Syrah. It could be as successful as its Pinot Noir. Let’s hope someone’s listening this time.
On another note, while I love some Australian Shirazes, there’s clearly a problem of over-acidifying. In a line-up of the top Shirazes in the country, the line-up was marred by sourness on the finish that I can only explain as overzealous acid additions. Think sucking on a lemon. Paringa Estate, Shaw & Smith and to some extent Clonakilla displayed this and they really need to rethink it.
The wines are clearly top quality with great concentration and texture but this sourness is not acceptable. Many New Zealand winemakers came up and agreed with me after I’d stuck my neck out at the seminar but I think it got some Australian backs up. What’s wrong with honesty?
Well it seems, honesty is a bad thing. I didn’t realize that this was a particularly sensitive issue in Australia at the moment after fellow English wine journo Andrew Jefford made a speech at the National Wine Centre in Adelaide in November about this and other things (click here to see the speech in full) He said “Misjudged acid addition is, for me, the defining fault of the Australian wine industry, and I regret the fact that it is rarely if ever viewed as a fault here. I’ve tasted hundreds of wines since my arrival here which I truly feel are defaced by acidity. Potentially fine wines which would, in other words, have been much, much better with much softer, less assertive levels of acidity. Lower acid levels would lead to flavour profiles of greater delicacy, expressivity and finesse, and a much subtler sensual appeal. One of the most frequent criticisms of Australian wine from both consumers and the international press is of homogeneity, and no single factor tends to reinforce this sense of sameiness more than acid adjustment as it’s currently practiced here.”
Guess I’m not alone.
The whiter side of Hawkes Bay
Monday 28 December
White varieties in New Zealand’s Hawkes Bay cover more than half of the region’s vineyard land despite being better known for its reds internationally. This statistic was a bit of a shock to me, coming from the UK. Isn’t Hawkes Bay dominated by Cabernet, Merlot and Syrah? Clearly not.
In fact, Chardonnay is the most planted variety with Sauvignon Blanc only beaten into third spot by Merlot.
I tried some really classy Chardonnays from here as well as some decent Viognier. But Sauvignon and Riesling? I understand that the world wants to drink New Zealand Sauvignon and there are distributors looking for anything but Marlborough SB but with prices falling faster than the Titanic, Hawkes Bay should focus on what it’s good at. The days are gone when Hawkes Bay could produce Sauvignon at an attractive price compared to Marlborough. In my opinion, this is the time to focus on its warmer climate whites and reds.
With the heat degree day summation in the Gimblett Gravels area exceeding that of Valence in the Rhone valley, Tony Bish, winemaker at Sacred Hill said: “We have to break the paradigm that all of New Zealand is cool climate.”
“Hawkes Bay Sauvignon Blanc is not as varietally intense because we don’t have the cool nights that Marlborough does, so we get riper wines with lower acids.” If the region is going to have a go at Sauvignon, why not throw in a bit of Semillon, a little bit of French oak and make a Graves/Pessac Leognan style? It would fit with the region’s Bordeaux blend reds.
The Chardonnays from producers including Clearview Estate, Sacred Hill’s Rifleman’s Chardonnay and Mission Estate’s Reserve all impressed. They’ve all got white stone fruit and citrus with some nicely balanced new french oak but the warmer climate in Hawkes Bay is definitely reflected by the 14% alcohol levels.
As well as doing a pretty good northern Rhone-style red, Gimblett producers are also doing some promising Rhone-style whites, including Craggy Range. Many other producers showed some lovely peach and apricotty character with decent concentration and typical Viognier structure but there was often too much oak covering that lovely Viognier fragrance.
There are some interesting spots in Hawkes Bay on the coast for whites - take German-owned Elephant Hill. It’s a newcomer to the region but already its whites are showing a delicacy and nimbleness that is surely a reflection of the cooler site - and perhaps its Germanic ownership. Clearview Estate, also situated on the coast, also shows a freshness that those further inland could not emulate. As always, it’s always about location, location, location.
Syrah vs Cabernet in Hawkes Bay
Wednesday 23 December
Hawkes Bay Syrah hit the headlines in the early 2000s. Its Rhone-style aromas of black and white pepper, violets and blackberries have since found many fans including yours truly, who like the extra ripeness and purity of New Zealand.
It is the new darling of the wine media and the variety has overshadowed Cabernet/Merlot in recent years. But Syrah’s column inches have been out of proportion to volumes produced here: it makes up just 3% of total plantings in Hawkes Bay while Cabernet and Merlot makes up 34%. Interestingly, Sauvignon Blanc covers 15% of the vineyard area here – and let’s face it, how many articles have you read about Hawkes Sauvignon?
Tony Bish, winemaker at Sacred Hill and a Green Day fan agreed, “There is more media than sales of Syrah at the moment but we are working on that because we like it too.
“Syrah has grown and grown and the accolades are still coming. Some people are planting Syrah with some are taking out Cabernet and Merlot,” he added. But the region still represents 73% of New Zealand’s Cab/Merlot plantings, so it’s not exactly a massive uprising.
What I wanted to know is what will Hawkes Bay focus on in the future as its flagship wine: Bordeaux or the Rhone? Can it do both or is that giving a mixed message? I talked to Rod Easthope, winemaker at Craggy Range and chair of Gimblett Gravels Winegrowers Association about this and he had some interesting ideas.
“Syrah is making all the noise: the wines are good and distinctive. The wines look like they come from here. People compare it to the Rhone but it has a distinctive character that I don’t see anywhere else.”
“Bordeaux wine relies on blending and oak so you will see a blurring of site-driven characteristics. Syrah more closely reflects its site into taste.
“The flagship should not be a varietal. We have always looked to replicate the classics in our formative years. But we are now getting to the stage where we are confident with our fruit and winemaking. Why not do a Cab/Syrah blend?”
He suggested it to the Association at its last meeting so let’s see if 2010 brings some new blends. It would certainly be a new take on the Aussie classic.
I’ll be attending the Cab/Merlot forum and the Syrah Symposium in Hawkes Bay at the end of January so watch this space for more on this. For more information on these events click here
In my next blog, I’ll take a look at whites in Hawkes Bay.